Tenax Road in Manchester runs north-south through the centre of the site of the old Trafford Park Aerodrome, which was the first purpose-built airfield in the Manchester area. The first known use of the all-grass site was by Henry Melly on 7 July 1911.

By prior arrangement, A.V. Roe had laid out white sheets on the ground to indicate the location of the landing area for Melly, who had flown non-stop flight from his base at Waterloo just north of Liverpool, to land his Blériot monoplane.

At the end of that month, a large crowd of spectators greeted French aviator Lt Conneau as he arrived in his Bleriot ahead of his competitors in a ‘Round Britain Air Race’ from Edinburgh via Carlisle. Only three others completed the course. On 20 June 1914, the aerodrome was used as the turning point for a Hendon-Birmingham-Manchester and return air race, but following this, it saw little use and closed in 1918.